mellowmel
What About the Extra Skin? Thighplasty / Thigh Lift
Sep 03, 2009
What was troubling for me was that this time, after doing a major dieting yoyo of around 50 pounds, I was left with thigh skin that was loose and rippling. I could not wear a swimsuit without a sarong. After all I had been through, I felt ugly in a swimsuit and shorts were out of the question.
I recently had thighplasty to correct this. My doctor did the back, inner, outer and front of my thighs. The incisions do not resemble anything I have yet seen on the internet. I found this site and feel that I fit in. Massive or large weight losses and plastic surgery for the resulting skin situation afterwards are a huge focus for me now. The extra skin is the part people don't usually talk about. We stuff it into support hose and wonder if our legs will ever look good without the pantyhose acting as the skin we wish we had.
I hoped my surgery would make me able to wear shorts and swimsuits. I'm almost 2 months post-op and I feel as if I look just as rippled and bumpy as before. My doctor says it will all resolve. I have huge fluid filled lumps in my right hip and thigh near the incision lines. My doctor drained one area, calling it a "saroma" and then left the others, saying it was normal inner scar tissue. I can feel the hard, lumps, one is about 5 inches long and few inches thick. The thigh on that side has a saddlebag sag and looks terrible. The swelling appeared in one day after I stayed in bed with fevers, chills and aches for one day. I started antibiotics the following day. One thigh is swollen and does not match the other one. I hope to find more information here on the subject of saromas, and body and thigh lift procedures.
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I recently had thighplasty to correct this. My doctor did the back, inner, outer and front of my thighs. The incisions do not resemble anything I have yet seen on the internet. I found this site and feel that I fit in. Massive or large weight losses and plastic surgery for the resulting skin situation afterwards are a huge focus for me now. The extra skin is the part people don't usually talk about. We stuff it into support hose and wonder if our legs will ever look good without the pantyhose acting as the skin we wish we had.
I hoped my surgery would make me able to wear shorts and swimsuits. I'm almost 2 months post-op and I feel as if I look just as rippled and bumpy as before. My doctor says it will all resolve. I have huge fluid filled lumps in my right hip and thigh near the incision lines. My doctor drained one area, calling it a "saroma" and then left the others, saying it was normal inner scar tissue. I can feel the hard, lumps, one is about 5 inches long and few inches thick. The thigh on that side has a saddlebag sag and looks terrible. The swelling appeared in one day after I stayed in bed with fevers, chills and aches for one day. I started antibiotics the following day. One thigh is swollen and does not match the other one. I hope to find more information here on the subject of saromas, and body and thigh lift procedures.
100 Pounds Lost!
Sep 03, 2009
100 pound weight loss!
After multiple pregnancies and gradual weight gain during the "baby years" I have lost over 100 pounds. I had surgery in July to lift the skin on my thighs in the front, outer side, back and inner thighs by Dr. Gary Smith. Surgery was July 22, 2009, the first pictures are from
August 3, 2009, about two weeks post-op.
My weight loss ended up being a two part story. I began by reading every weight loss book I could find. I started testing my own blood sugar and found that after my breakfast each morning, my blood sugar fell to a 40 reading, which to a diabetic would mean they could pass out from low blood sugar.
I called my advice nurse at Kaiser Permanente HMO, and she told me, "Eat sugar. You need sugar." I knew that for anyone not using insulin, this was profoundly bad advice.
I realized from my tests and the information I had read that I had reactive hypoglycemia. My high carbohydrate breakfast was giving me a low blood sugar reaction. I was trying to eat a low fat diet and my favorite snack was fat-free puffed rice cakes. What I needed to do was eat foods that did not cause this problem. I later learned that the rice cakes were about the worst thing I could possibly eat. They have a nasty glycemic index rating. The glycemic index shows how fast different foods are turned into blood sugar. The fastest ones are the worst. They create hunger and blood sugar roller coaster effects.
I found that my low fat, high carbohydrate diet made me hungry all the time. I found some books about good fats and balancing good carbohydrates (vegetables and fruit) and proteins and finally got my wacko blood sugar leveled out. Once my blood sugar wasn't bottoming out, I could lose weight. After losing about sixty pounds, I could stuff myself tightly into size 14 pants and I felt brave enough to be seen in workout clothes at a gym. I joined one and began serious weight training and cardio. I lost a total of over 90 pounds and felt attractive for the first time in many years. I could wear size 6 pants and the 8's and 10 looked enormous to me. Even better, instead of cars trying to run me over as I crossed the parking lot to the grocery store, they began stopping and waiting for me to cross.
After a few years, we moved and I found it difficult to get excited about daily trips to the gym in my new location. I wished there was a way to have a normal body without the extreme exercise. I wanted easy: walking, bike rides, and simple things I could go at home. I gained back over 40 pounds and became very depressed. I went all the way up to a size 16 in pants. I had started years before at size 22 in pants, so this was not the worst that could happen, but I was again in the fat lady zone by a good margin.
This time, none of my old weight loss methods worked. I lost and regained the first 10 pounds over and over again.
I researched on the internet to see if anyone else was finding a breakthrough when weight loss became just about impossible. I found information about using hCG (a pregnancy hormone) injections. After extensive research, I found that one of the side effects of hCG use was a reduction in breast cancer risk. That was all I could find. Everyone who tried it loved it. It fooled the body into NOT going into starvation mode and also reset people's weight setpoints, so regaining weight took time and effort (massive overeating over a long period of time). I found a clinic and started the very low calorie diet. I lost the weight very quickly and continued to lose weight until I weighed less than when I first lost the 90 pounds years before. I lost over 50 pounds. I loved getting on the scale each day seeing PROGRESS. I gave a way my fat clothes in stages. At first I gave away the 16's, then the 14's, 12's, 10's, 8's and so on. Now my size 6 pants are baggy, so they are next.
I finally have control of my weight, having switched to a mostly raw diet and finding that I can eat often and a lot without the low blood sugar issues and without gaining any weight. I start most days with a green shake. I use cucumber, strawberries, stevia, and plenty of spinach or other greens, such as kale and often, a carrot. Raw rice protein is another good ingredient. To learn about green shakes, go to youtube.com and search for green shakes. There are many recipes and instructions there.